The “phonetic numbers” technique

The lists section showed how to remember long lists by
visualizing the items and connecting them. The technique for how to memorize
numbers is to do the same, but first we need a way to replace numbers with
words that can be visualized.

For example, which of the following two things would you rather remember?

9285807437013102712

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.

In fact, by remembering the quote you have already learned the number—you
just have to read this section to learn to turn the sentence into the number.
Even better, you’ll be able to turn any number that you want to remember into
a phrase or list of words.

What this system is not

You are most likely already familiar with one way to make words from numbers.
On most telephones every number from 2 to 9 is labeled with several letters.
Many companies buy a number that spells their name or a word associated with
their product (1-800-INSURANCE). It is sometimes possible to take
an existing phone number and make a word out of it, but this doesn’t always
work. The number 1 isn’t even labeled with a letter, and some number
combinations, like 5797, don’t have any vowels.

The system that you’re about to learn can be used to memorize any number. It is
much easier to translate the numbers into words compared to things like the
telephone method, and just as easy to recall.

The major system

In this system, each digit from 0 to 9 is matched with a group of similar
consonant sounds. Vowels do not correspond to any number. This way, each word
in the English language can be unambiguously translated to numbers, and for any
set of numbers there are many possible words that you can use to memorize them.

For example, the T sound will correspond to the number 1, and the N sound
corresponds to the number 2. So the words tuna, tune, toon, tiny, tan, and
Tina all translate into the number 12. The words net and nut become the
number 21. The different vowel sounds in each word do not represent any digit,
so there are many possible words the can be used to memorize the same number.

The following chart shows the consonant sounds that are matched to each digit.
The fourth column gives an easy way to remember each number. Don’t feel like
you have to learn them all before you read the rest of the section.

Number

Consonant Sounds

Examples

Memory Aid

0

s, z, soft c

Sue, zoo, ace

zero starts with a Z

1

t, d, th

toe, aid, Theo

a t has 1 down stroke

2

n

in, yawn, Anne

an n has 2 down strokes

3

m

my, home, Amy

an m has 3 down strokes

4

r

ray, hero, ear

R is the 4th letter of four

5

l

hill, owl, Will

L is the roman numeral for 50

6

j, ch, sh, soft g

jaw, chew, ash, huge

a script j has a lower loop like a 6 (sort of a stretch)

7

k, q, hard c, hard g

key, cow, egg

K looks like two horizontal 7’s (…also a stretch)

8

f, v, ph

hoof, Eve, phooey

a script f looks like a figure 8

9

p, b

ape, bee

a P and a 9 both have a loop and a tail

You might notice that several letters are missing from the table: A, E,
I, O, U and Y, along with H and W. The sounds that these letters
make have no numerical value. (The letter X is also missing, but we’ll talk
about that in a second.)

How to remember the sound groups

At first it may seem difficult to remember the groups of letters for each
number. Practice saying the example words given above and pay attention to
the position of your tongue and lips. For example, when you say words with
the ‘P’ or ‘B’ sound, you’re likely to close and open your lips
the same way. The ‘K’ and hard ‘G’ sound both come from the same
place in the back of your mouth.

Right now it may seem easier to have a system based on letters instead of
sounds, but after some practice this technique allows you to memorize and
recall numbers very quickly; it becomes second-nature, and you don’t have to
worry about spelling mistakes.

Should I make my own system?

It is definitely best to learn the system as it has been explained here. This
memorization technique, called “the major system,” was created by
Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein
sometime in the 17th century. Those who use the technique almost always match
the digits and sounds as has been shown here. So, if you’re tempted to rematch
the sounds and numbers, just remember that anyone else using the system, as
well as any books or software that you consult, will be doing it differently
than you.

Translating words to numbers

You may want to see some examples of interchanging words and numbers; the
following chart shows some words and the numbers that they signify.

Numbers are sounds, not letters

In the examples above it is possible to change the words into numbers just by
looking at the letters, because the letters sound exactly as you would
expect. However, many English words have letters that sound different than
they normally sound, and sometimes letters do no make a sound at all. The
following list gives some examples.

Word

Number

Explanation

ball

95

There is only one L sound

attic

17

There is only one T sound

clock

757

The “ck” together only make one K sound

match

36

The “tch” together only make one CH sound

witch

6

The “tch” together only make one CH sound

chemical

7375

The “ch” together only make one K sound

reign

42

The “g” is silent

half

8

The “l” is silent

knee

2

The “k” is silent

painting

9212

The “g” is silent (for most people)

ocean

62

The word is pronounced “oh-shun”

lotion

562

The word is pronounced “loh-shun”

ax

70

The “x” makes a K and an S sound

A few words may not have the same consonant sounds depending on who pronounces
them. An example is the word picture. Some would pronounce this word as
“pic-shur” (9764) and others might say “pict-shur” (97164). Another word that
is tricky is wolf; depending on where you’re from and how carefully you’re
speaking you might say this word several ways.

When you choose words like these to memorize, always pronounce them as clearly
as possible so that they always represent the same numbers.

Translating in your head

This technique makes it very easy to do the translation from words to numbers
in your head because you don’t have to worry about how the word is spelled.
Simply sound out the word and pay special attention to all of the consonant
sounds. Each time you hit a new consonant sound, you’re at a new number.

Translating numbers to words

Before you can memorize and recall a number, you first have to translate it
into the words that you will memorize. This can be fun, and there’s some room
for creativity because there may be many words that can represent any number.

Say you need to memorize the number 14. (Sure, it’s a short number, but we’ll
start with it to practice.) If a word is to represent 14 then its first
consonant sound has to be T, D, or TH. The second and last consonant
sound must be an R. Now say the consonant sounds together, “TR…DR…THR,”
and think of a word that they make.

You might have come up with any of the following: tire, tree, tower,
door, Drew, deer, udder, throw, or Heather. If you grew up in the
80’s then you might have thought of Atari. Any of these words represent the
number 14.

Also, don’t forget that the words do not have to start with T, D, or TH
and end with R; these only have to be the first and last consonant sounds.
So the words water, waiter, doorway, throwaway, even diarrhea, can
all be used to memorize the number 14.

Below are some more examples of translating numbers into words. Keep in mind
that there are many other words that could be used in addition to those
listed.

Number

Word(s)

75

coal, clue, cola, eagle, glue, goal, keyhole, koala, quill, ugly

29

bean, bin, bone, bun, bunny, open, pan, pawn, pen, penny, piano

63

chime, gem, jam, Jim, shame

491

robot, rowboat, warped, robbed, rabbit

75214

calendar, colander

14265

tarantula, torrential

8426840

french fries

Common pitfalls

Be careful to not choose words that have unnecessary consonant sounds in them.
When finding a word for 14, it’s easy to say to yourself, “DR…DR…dirt!”,
which has an extra T sound. When you pick a word make sure that
it translates into exactly the same numbers that you started with.

Along the same lines, don’t think that a word represents more numbers than it
actually does. This happens sometimes due to the spelling of the word. An
example is the word lamb—it seems like it translates to 139, but since
the “b” is silent, it only represents 13. To avoid making this mistake be
sure to only think about the sounds a word makes, not how it’s spelled.

Putting the technique to use

You may have already guessed this, but the longer a number is, the harder it
is to find a word to represent it. Because of this, it is necessary to
combine words to memorize long numbers. There are two good ways to do this.

Using phrases to memorize numbers

Once way to memorize a long number is to just use a phrase or sentence instead
of individual words. We’ll use pi as an example number to memorize. Using
some creativity and experimentation, you might come up with a sentence like

I might write a lab in jail.

which represents 314159265. If you want to remember even more digits you
might come up with

Mighty hero, to you who will banish all my love—a big bohemian ham for a
change.

which is 31415926535897932384626. But while it’s syntactically correct, that
sentence is bizarre, not very memorable, and took a long time to come up with.

If you can find a sentence to represent a number then you will probably
memorize it very easily and be able to remember it for a long time. But
making a phrase or sentence for every number is very difficult which is why we
need a second technique.

Linking a list to memorize numbers

This is definitely the more useful of the two methods. To memorize a long
number, just break it into smaller numbers and find words to represent each of
the smaller segments. Then, memorize the list by
chaining together all of these words in order to form the longer number.
Again, we’ll us pi as an example:

314

15

926

53

58

979

323

846

26

mother

towel

banjo

lamb

elf

pickup

M&M

fridge

nachos

By memorizing the list “mother, towel, banjo…,” you can memorize the first
23 digits of pi. With a little practice, the process of linking a list of
numbers is very fast and can be done completely in your head. This method can
be used to learn phone numbers, your credit card numbers, birthdays, or any
other number you would like to memorize.